Palmer, who once described as Britain’s richest criminal and thought to have been worth £300million, got his nickname after he was arrested on suspicion of melting down gold from the Brink’s-Mat robbery at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

Although he was never convicted, the robbery of £25million f gold was the biggest robbery to have ever taken place in the UK at the time.

At the time of his death Palmer was also due to stand trial in mainland Spain for property fraud.